Survivors told to learn disaster lessons from Supertyphoon Yolanda

NEVER FORGOTTEN. A survivor offers flowers at a mass grave site within the Metropolitan Cathedral compound in Palo, Leyte during the 11th-year commemoration of Super Typhoon Yolanda (international name Haiyan) on Friday (Nov. 8, 2024). Eleven years after the tragedy, survivors should learn the lessons of Yolanda to become more resilient as recent disasters are becoming more destructive. (PNA photo by Roel Amazona)

TACLOBAN CITY — Eleven years on, survivors should learn the lessons of Super Typhoon Yolanda (international name Haiyan) to become more resilient as recent disasters have become more destructive, officials said on Friday.

Speaking during the commemoration of the killer storm, Tacloban Mayor Alfred Romualdez said the city government would continue to remember the disaster every year.

“There is a reason why we survived the storm. We have a purpose in life and that is to teach the next generation how to prepare for calamities and disasters,” he told the crowd gathered at the mass grave site in Basper village, where more than 2,000 victims were buried.

READ: Marcos: Lessons from Yolanda ‘should not be lost with the passage of time’

The lesson, according to him, is to remember how to prepare for calamities and “not just depend on government with so many people asking for help after a disaster.”

“We must move people out of danger zones. You should cooperate with the government since we’re spending billions every year on rehabilitation and rescue. We must go out there and stay in safer zones,” he said.

The 2022 report of the Regional Development Council in Eastern Visayas showed that about 29,422 housing units for victims of Yolanda were already occupied, while 11,266 were ready for occupancy out of the 64,696 target units in six provinces.

City government officials have no data on housing during the event.

During the commemoration in Palo, Leyte, a nearby town badly damaged by the super typhoon, Gov. Carlos Jericho Petilla said people in the province had been learning from Yolanda.

“Now, people are already aware. Whenever there is an upcoming typhoon, they immediately evacuate to a safer place, unlike before, when we must force them. We might not be able to prepare enough but we need to do everything we can to prepare for any disaster, and that is one thing the people of Leyte know now,” Petilla said.

In his message, Roman Catholic Church Archbishop John Du, said typhoon-hit areas commemorate Yolanda “not because of the typhoon but because of God’s love and care.”

“We celebrate hope and charity. Let us be one. We need to give each other support. Let us be mindful of others. We need to be thoughtful of the needs, especially those who are the least, the last, and the lost,” Du added.

Yolanda, which is said to be the strongest typhoon in world history, struck the central Philippines on Nov. 8, 2013, and wreaked havoc on 175 cities and towns in 14 provinces in six regions. The disaster killed more than 6,000 people.

The total damage cost and losses in affected areas reached P101.79 billion, of which P48.79 billion was recorded in Eastern Visayas. (PNA)